


Developing Friendships

by Justkelsey



Category: Outer Banks (2020)
Genre: Bullying, Character Death, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23732143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Justkelsey/pseuds/Justkelsey
Summary: Here’s the thing about John B. Routledge; The kid was a magnet. He drew you in and somehow managed to find the best people without even trying. And once he had drawn you in, there was no getting rid of him.***How each Pogue became friends with John B and how they deal with his “death”.
Relationships: JJ & John B. Routledge, Kiara & John B. Routledge, Pope & John B. Routledge, Sarah Cameron/John B. Routledge
Comments: 9
Kudos: 122





	Developing Friendships

Here’s the thing about John B. Routledge; The kid was a magnet. He drew you in and somehow managed to find the best people without even trying. And once he had drawn you in, there was no getting rid of him. 

And you wouldn’t want to, John B was ridiculously nice and the best friend you could ever ask for. 

JJ had known John B since the 3rd grade, and honestly, JJ had no idea what he’d ever do without him. 

Here is this scrappy kid with shaggy blond hair, 8-years-old and still missing two of his baby teeth. JJ’s four feet nothing and he’s just lost his Mom. Most days he shows up to school with red rimmed eyes and dirty clothes. His Dad still hasn’t gotten over it, JJ doesn’t think he ever will. 

And then there’s John B. He’s four inches taller than the blonde -having already hit a growth spurt- with dimples and more freckles on his face than just about anybody. 

Everybody those days looked at JJ with pity, asked him if he was OK, and whispered about the boy with the dead mom when they thought he wasn’t listening.

But John B wasn’t like that at all. 

One day, towards the end of lunch John B just marched up to JJ like a soldier on a mission. JJ’s Dad hadn’t packed him lunch that morning so JJ was coloring, ignoring the grumbling of his stomach. 

“I heard you lost your Mom,” No preamble and no pity. Just straight to the point John B. 

JJ curls his hands into fists so tight his crayon almost snaps, but he doesn’t say anything in reply. He just glares at the other boy. 

John B. just shrugs his shoulders and smiles, like JJ wasn’t trying to murder the other boy with his eyes. “I lost my mom too.” He’s still smiling. 

This is the first time any of JJ’s classmates have acknowledged anything to do with his mom. JJ doesn’t know how to react.

And just like that, John B. sits across from JJ and shoves a sandwich wrapped in plastic at him. Like making friends was the easiest thing in the world and like all of JJ’s classmates hadn’t spent the last week ignoring him.

“Do you want this? It’s peanut butter and banana.”

And that had been the end of it -or rather, the start. Everyday after that John B had sat with JJ and the two had quickly become best friends. Once John B had decided you were friends, you couldn’t get rid of him. JJ found he didn’t want to.

JJ hadn’t said it, but he was endlessly thankful for what John B had done that day. And endlessly thankful for every day after that. 

~ 

Upon first glance, if you saw Pope, you would not assume he was from The Cut. Pope didn’t quite look like a Kook but he didn’t quite look like a Pogue either. Obviously, the boy didn’t have name brand clothing or a new phone like them. But Pope was a goody-two-shoes from head to toe and completely lacked the aloof attitude most kids south of the island had. 

Not a Kook but not fully a Pogue either. 

But the Kooks saw right through Pope. Like sharks, they could smell the blood in the water. Any hint of weakness and they attacked. 

Pope was 11, completely friendless, and a good target for Kooks. Unfortunately, even back then Topper and his friends had still been complete assholes. They raise douchebags young you see.

It was a four-on-one, totally unfair and even more so because Pope had never thrown a punch in his life. Rafe, of course, was leading the charge and seemed perfectly happy ganging up on the boy.

“Go back to your side of the island, Pogue.” Rafe had sneered, sticking to the same Kook generated insults as always. It would be a shame if he deviated from the typical script.

It didn’t seem like Rafe liked the reminder that there was only one school on the island because he punched Pope again for his troubles. Pope groaned, clutching his stomach.

It was at that moment that John B showed up. To Pope, he might as well have been a knight in shining armor. 

“Hey! Get off him!” Yelled John B as he came around the corner, JJ not far behind on his heels. 

Pope had met John B before but they weren’t friends. Pope had always been more focused on school, so it was a surprise when the other boy spoke up for him so strongly. 

John B was nothing like Pope in the way that Pope had never thrown a punch, because without skipping a beat, John B had punched Rafe right in the nose. 

That had only been the start of the fight, Rafe’s friends all immediately went to attack John B but JJ wasn’t far behind. Both boys scrapping with the best of ‘em. Suddenly, the Four-on-One had become a Four-on-Three. It would be the first time Pope had gotten into a fight, but it wouldn’t be the last because of his friends.

It had taken two teachers to break up the fight, and by the end of it Pope would have a black eye and none of the other boys fared much better. Pope’s Dad had been pissed, talks of grounding and military school going on for hours. Oddly though, Pope hadn’t cared. He had just gained two friends. 

Because once John B drew you in, you couldn’t escape. 

~ 

It wasn’t until the beginning of freshmen year that Kiara became friends with John B. Kiara didn’t fit John B’s typical style of friend, hell, she was completely left field of it. For one, she was a Kook and for another she was a girl. John B had nothing against girls, mind you. But Kooks? That was a different story. 

But something about Kiara was different. She didn’t wear name brand clothes like the Kooks and didn’t try to impress people with her parents' money. She liked surfing and helping others and saving the environment. 

And when Kiara had gone into high school, she had no friends. The girl had hoped High School would be like all of the movies she had ever seen, football games, parties, and the best years of her life. But for her, none of those things had happened. All of her friends she had accumulated in 8th grade suddenly abandoned her without a glance backward. Leaving her for cooler and older friends who only cared about how much money they had. 

Kiara was completely alone. 

So crying in the bathroom wasn’t the best move, but you couldn’t blame her, High School was full of bitches and Kiara somehow couldn’t make a single friend. So sobbing her eyes out in the toilets was as good as it got. 

God, I hate High School. Kiara had thought. 

The door to the bathroom creaked open but Kiara just continued crying, she didn’t care who heard her. Her day couldn’t get much worse. 

“Uhh, are you doing okay in there?” A voice asked, echoing around the mostly silent bathroom.

Kiara sniffled, “I’m fine.” She said, sounding absolutely not fine.

The owner of the voice shuffled outside her stall, sounding awkward. “Do you wanna talk about it? I mean, you don’t sound fine.” 

As she was listening, Kiara realized for the first time, the voice didn’t belong here. Because the voice outside her stall was a boy’s. 

Kiara opened the door to the stall, wanting to see who this person was. It was John B, but she didn’t know that, she’d never seen him before. Two stared at each other for a second. Kiara knew she must look like a mess, her eyes felt swollen from crying and there was snot stains on her sleeves. And now that she was staring down a cute boy in a bathroom stall, she realized just how much of a mess she looked like. 

“No offense or anything,” Kiara sniffled as she wiped at her eyes, “But what are you doing in the girl’s bathroom?” 

The boy flushed a bright red from his neck to his ears, looking about embarrassed as she felt. 

“Uh- This isn’t the girls restroom.” 

Kiara felt her sadness switch to confusion within a second, then going straight into embarrassment. Now it was her turn to become bright red. The boy wasn’t embarrassed because he was in the girls restroom, he was embarrassed because she was in the boy’s. 

Kiara clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes locking with the urinal right over John B’s shoulder. “Oh my god, I’m such an idiot.” 

She was 100% wrong, her day could get much worse. 

Now that Kiara wasn’t bawling her eyes out it was so clear to her that this wasn’t the girl’s restroom. She was mortified. 

She leapt to her feet brushing past, the boy as she attempted to leave the boy’s bathroom as fast as physically possible. Embarrassment only surging her feet faster. 

Kiara opened the bathroom door, glancing back and forth for witnesses before escaping. Thank God, everyone was still at lunch.

She had expected the boy to finish up whatever business he had in the bathroom or do whatever boy’s do. But instead, he chased after her. 

“What’s your name?” He asked as he fell into step with her, he sounded a little breathless. She had realized she’d been jogging. 

“You can’t tell anyone about that.” Kiara rushed to say, her jogging slowing down into a full halt as she showed a finger into the taller boy’s chest. She didn’t know how she’d ever live that down if he told anyone, half of her grade already hated her. 

He nodded quickly, miming zipping his lips. Kiara couldn’t help a small smile at his antics. Now that her bathroom fiasco was a little further behind her, Kiara felt herself relaxing a little. 

“My name’s Kiara.” She admitted. 

The boy smiled, dimples showing. “Nice to meet you, my name’s John B.” The boy -John B, replied in turn. 

Kiara felt her eyebrow rise at that, “John B?” 

“Yeah,” He nodded, sounding a little awkward. “My Dad’s name is John too. So everyone just calls me John B.” It was obvious he got the question a lot. 

“Oh, well then, nice to meet you too, John B.”

Kiara and John B hadn’t immediately become friends after that. It wasn’t an instantaneous thing, her friendship with him -and in turn, JJ and Pope- developed gradually. 

She hadn’t known it then but her fate was already sealed. The magnet that was John B had already drawn her in. Hook, line, and sinker. 

~ 

John B was dead. 

Each of the Pogue’s has all been told this but yet, not a single one of them was willing to believe it. 

JJ circled between sadness, anger, and disbelief constantly. Pope was quiet in the face of his friends death, often seen huddled in on himself. And Kiara hovered, watching after her two remaining friends with a hawklike focus.

None of them were okay. They were lost without John B, like they were drifting without anything to keep them in place. 

The Phantom had been found 3 miles off coast, drowned completely. They said there was no way anyone could have survived it. But neither John B or Sarah’s body had turned up. 

And life just kind of seemed to go on. It had been a week and the Cameron’s were already talking about a funeral for Sarah. Peterkin’s funeral had already happened. None of the Pogue’s had gone. And now, the bank was going to reclaim John B’s house. Where currently, all of the Pogue’s had spent the better part of the week at. All of them huddling around each other like they were scared one of them was going to be next. 

Ward and Rafe Cameron had yet to be arrested on any charges. And no matter what any of them said, Ward and Rafe continued to go free. Sarah Cameron was the sole witness of that day. And now, she was dead. It was hard not to think the Pogue’s weren’t in any danger.

A knock sounded from the door. 

Kiara sat up from her place on the floor, eyes connecting immediately with both of her friends who sat splayed around John B’s living room. 

“Who do you think it is?” Kiara asked, her voice barely above a whisper. 

“I’ll get it.” Pope said, already getting to his feet.

JJ had already flopped back down on the couch. “Tell whoever it is to fuck off.” 

Kiara was tempted to follow JJ’s lead and screw everything else, but her concern won out, so she stayed sitting up and listened for whoever was at the door. 

“Package for a John B. Routledge.” 

She could hear Pope talking too. “There’s no. . .” Kiara didn’t hear the rest. 

This time she did flop on the floor. She guessed she knew what John B felt like when everyone tried to convince him his Dad was dead. 

“Uhhh, guys! I think you should see this.” Pope said as he came back in. It was the most hopeful Pope had sounded since The Phantom. 

“What is it?” JJ grumbled into the couch, not even attempting to sound excited.

“Look!” Pope said. Now, both Kiara and JJ are both sitting up. Pope throws a package down on the table. 

The package only has one thing on it: From Bird

**Author's Note:**

> Me, the first to write an Outer Banks Fan fiction: I’m a pilgrim, the first of my time. 
> 
> Lol, hope you enjoyed this. I just finished the show and I already miss it.


End file.
